Post your trip reports, travel experiences, and updates abroad. Or your expat story if you already live overseas. Note: To post photos and images, insert the image URL between the tags [img]and[/img] after uploading them to a third party site.

I am now at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. Quit my job in Saudi Arabia- fed up, I guess. Flew through Jordan , spent three days in Amman, what an ugly place! Went to see Petra ( you can google it) rode a donkey and a horse, had some great food and met some great people, but Amman is just plain unsightly and boring. Just spent two days in Istanbul and it has been an amazing surprize- I expected to see a poor, Muslim city devoid of greenery and backward in general. Instead , sheeeeeeeeeet! This is a f***ing Paris! Enormous, gorgeous European city with streets and architecture so beautuful, I was so shocked I could barely walk down the streets without stopping every second to see something new. I just kept gawking and aaaahhhing and oohhhhing all the way. The parks, the fountains, the architectures. And it is rich, rich, RICH!!! And modern, totally First World. And green, green GREEN! Absolutely stunning!

Every street is a work of art. Seagulls everywhere, the Bosphorus is emerald in color, there are so many things to see and experience. And the people are just moderate Muslim Europeans. They should join the EU, in my opinion. The EU will benefit by having this gorgeous country in it.

When going to Ukraine, go through Istanbul and then fly to Odessa from there. You will love this route. And Istanbul is a must see. I never ever imagined it to be so magnificent.

Will be reporting from Ukraine in a couple of days. Stay tuned.

Last edited by ladislav on Sat Jun 13, 2009 4:28 am, edited 3 times in total.

Very curious to see photos of Istanbul, with more of your commentary. And how are the Turkish people? By many accounts, they have a reputation as being the most hospitable in the world, what's been your experience?

Arrived in Odessa, Ukraine. The airport is tiny, but OK. I have not been here for 31 years. There is so much change it is unreal! Imagine basically the French Riviera but change the signs to Cyrillic. That is what it looks like here. Gorgeous! French archtecture, Gucci stores, big banks, stunningly beautiful streets and parks everywhere. Fountains. Flowers everywhere. This is like Paris or Rome but with the sea. Slavic Mediterranean. Slavic France. Slavic Corsica.

Why why why dont people come here? I have seen only 5-6 foreigners. Some Africans, one Oriental looking mother and daugher, and only one American ( I asked the people- how come so few foreigners??- the answer was -There are plenty- there are many Russians here! I meant REAL foreigners, da*n it.)

There are girls in miniskirts everywhere. You can smoke and drink and do anything you want just about anywhere. The laws are very lax. Today I left the city and went to the countryside. There are fields of wild poppies- brightest red in color. Gorgeous. All around beaches you see girls in bikinis. Some just cover their breasts with towels and walk around. Some wear something like G-strings. Guys walk into a tram car and take off their T shirst and sit around in shorts only. No one gives a darn.

Many things that they do here would be totally illegal in the West.

The people are not smily, some are rude but that is just how Ukies are. No pretense at all.

Now, as far as the girls go- well, there are quite a few around, and I tried to chat them up but many see me as some kind of dork because I speak with a funny accent. I told them about America and they are like- so what? They were not impressed. They do not see me as a foreigner, either.

In this part of Ukraine girls were always stuck up plus also, do keep in mind my age- I am 49. Filipinas may be impressed and not care about age and they love fatherly white men. Here everybody is white , there are lots of good looking young guys and you really need to know people to meet girls.

But again I am kind of a displaced local. If you come and you have contacts, then you should be OK. They have many agencies here. I could go that route of course, but I am not here to date. I like Asian girls still.

Ukraine is a very diverse place and different parts have different type people. For example, in Nikolayev next door and in the nieghboring Moldova people are completely different and girls are easy to find from what I hear. In Kherson- a town not far from here, it is also OK.

But do keep in mind, this is well, (non EU) Europe. Nobody will look at a foreigner who looks kind of like them. So you need to be in the right circles, go to parties and stay here a bit longer. Or go the agency route.

Do not expect girls to be falling all over you if you are from the West.

Another thing- English is rarely spoken, there are very few signs in English- most are in Ukrainian but the people speak a strange dialect of Russian.

Bring phrase books when you come.

I am exhausted from all this walking around. Will go to my hotel to rest now.

ladislav wrote:Update: there are girls all around the beach areas with high heels and shorts so short that one can see the buttocks. There are more girls in mini skirts everywhere. My eyes are feasting.

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

Hotels $25-50 a night. A nice 3 course meal in a fancy restaurant- $10. Tramcars- 12c. Cigarettes- one pack is some 80c.
The police does not seem to be checking passports. But again, this is not Kiev. This is Odessa. A big port city.

They are still rude here. Have not learned customer service at all. It is like they are doing me a favor by serving me. No wonder they are a 33d world country.

Also, not only there is no English here, but there is no Roman alphabet used, and the signs are in Ukrainian, but everybody speaks Russian.Somebody needs to stay here and teach them about international marketing and globalization and all that.

This is after 11 years in the Gulf. Also, I can afford to quit and not work for three years if I do not want to. So, there is quitting and then there is quitting. Plus I was tired working for Brits. I would much rather work for Americans.

I was once fired from my job in Oman. Well, not fired, but made redundant. They had to pay me bonuses, vacations and overtime. I left with a $20,000 check.

So, when you get fired or quit in the Middle East, it is not like getting fired or quitting in the US. You can always afford it. Then you can always come back.

Where I would like to work next? I still have not decided.

Why are you worried? Have you spent 11 years in Arabia, too? Why would you get burnt out?

Has the poverty gotten any better? When I was there, I was told that there were people who were starving. Then we'd go out into the country side and there would be fertile lands that weren't being tilled. Seems that the communists still hadn't privatized the land. So there were lands that were owned by communes which weren't viable businesses any more, and they wouldn't sell them to private owners.

Ladislav, if you right click on the image and paste the image url (or img src) between the [img]and[/img] tags, it will be more convenient for people to see them right here in the post body than to have to click on every link.

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World